If all 10 episodes of a season were made available at once, such as on streaming video-on-demand services such as Netflix and Presto, then I think I'd be too traumatised after a weekend of binge viewing.

I like having a week to digest and process the events of each episode, particularly when they are like this week's ninth installment of season five, The Dance of Dragons.

Two horrible acts were committed against children. One of them brought me to tears.

As Cersei foreshadowed in the previous season, "All over the world, they hurt little girls".

It seems the only thing worse than being a woman in Westeros is being a young one.

The fate of princess Shireen, at the hands of her own father, was particularly traumatising.

It was shortly followed by an epic final action scene in faraway Meereen, where "mother of dragons" Daenerys reopens the fighting pits.

It felt strange to be presented with one of the worst kinds of horror one could imagine, and that's saying something for an ultra-violent show like Game of Thrones, and then be rewarded with a key moment I'd been waiting for while I was still reeling from the former.

If only a dragon could have also flown to the aid of sweet Shireen. I can only hope her ghost will haunt Stannis for the rest of his days.

Monday's upcoming episode is the final instalment of the season, and afterwards we must wait another 10 months for our next Game of Thrones hit.

We are likely to see another highly anticipated scene, featuring Lena Headey as the manipulative Queen Cersei walking the streets of Kings Landing naked.

Word got out about the scene, in which the much-hated character finally gets her comeuppance, when it was filmed in Dubrovnik last year.

While she's not likely to meet her end, Cersei's walk of shame would still make for a satisfying end.